For decades, December 21, 2012, has been a touchstone for doomsayers worldwide. It is the date, they claim, when the ancient Maya calendar predicts the world will end.In Los Angeles, two weeks before, all is calm. Dr. Gabriel Stanton takes his usual For decades, December 21, 2012, has been a touchstone for doomsayers worldwide. It is the date, they claim, when the ancient Maya calendar predicts the world will end.In Los Angeles, two weeks before, all is calm. Dr. Gabriel Stanton takes his usual morning bike ride, drops off the dog with his ex-wife, and heads to the lab where he studies incurable prion diseases for the CDC. His first phone call is from a hospital resident who has an urgent case she thinks he needs to see. Meanwhile, Chel Manu, a Guatemalan American researcher at the Getty Museum, is interrupted by a desperate, unwelcome visitor from the black market antiquities trade who thrusts a duffel bag into her hands.By the end of the day, Stanton, the foremost expert on some of the rarest infections in the world, is grappling with a patient whose every symptom confounds and terrifies him. And Chel, the brightest young star in the field of Maya studies, has possession of an illegal artifact that has miraculously survived the centuries intact: a priceless codex from a lost city of her ancestors. This extraordinary record, written in secret by a royal scribe, seems to hold the answer to her life’s work and to one of history’s great riddles: why the Maya kingdoms vanished overnight. Suddenly it seems that our own civilization might suffer this same fate.With only days remaining until December 21, 2012, Stanton and Chel must join forces before time runs out. ...Continua Nascondi

There was no word in Qu'iche for coincidence, and it wasn't only a problem of translation. When events happened together and pointed in a single direction, her people used a different word. It was the same word Chel's father used in his final letterThere was no word in Qu'iche for coincidence, and it wasn't only a problem of translation. When events happened together and pointed in a single direction, her people used a different word. It was the same word Chel's father used in his final letter from prison, when he sensed his death was near: ch'umilal.
Fate....Continua Nascondi

Stanton headed into his garage. Behind boxes of research journals, Notre Dame memorabilia, and outdated biking equipment was a small safe. Inside he found his self-assembled earthquake/tsunami kit: water-purification tablets, a whistle and signal mirStanton headed into his garage. Behind boxes of research journals, Notre Dame memorabilia, and outdated biking equipment was a small safe. Inside he found his self-assembled earthquake/tsunami kit: water-purification tablets, a whistle and signal mirror, a thousand dollars in cash and a Smith & Wesson 9mm.
Davies stood at the door, peering in. "I always knew you were a Republican."...Continua Nascondi